Be Careful What You Wish For, First Version
by Blazewind
Summary: A young woman from our world is given the key to visit the Gargoyoyles' dimension. What will she do with the time she has? Read it and find out. Please R & R, also let me know if the G rating isn't enough. Thanx! :)


Be Careful What You Wish For  
  
  
Except for this paragraph, everything is as I had written it four to six years ago. This is probably the very first gargoyles fan fiction that I ever wrote, so please be nice. There is actually a list of gargoyles closings, which I have compiled with the help of various pen pals. Its somewhere in my apartment, buried, but if I ever find it, I'll probably set it up here on the site. Hope you enjoy it. P.S. I'm planning another version of this story, same plot line, but different character and a sequel besides. P.P.S. At the time that this story was written, I had heard a rumor that Marvel was going bankrupt, which was the reason for so many cancellations of minor comics, including 'Gargoyles.'  
  
Everything in real life is my creation except for the references to the "Gargoyles" cartoon. Everything in the "Gargoyles" belongs to Disney/Buena Vista except Jana. All the dates have been made up except for February 22, 1997, which is when "Angels in the Night" was shown for the first time, in Canada anyway.  
  
If there is a story, or stories, similar to the first example given by Jana on June 22, 1997 it is completely unintentional. There are Gargoyles crossovers with D.S. 9, X-Files, and The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest. The stories can all be found somewhere on the Internet, as can the story about the gargoyles and Elisa busting Antonio Draconi, as is the one where a girl can visit the show. No, that story did not inspire me to write this one. I didn't even know it existed until after I had thought of the idea and did some brainstorming. I have long wondered what it would be like to visit a show, what sort of things I wanted to do.  
  
Well, now that that's out of the way, let's get on with the story. Hope you enjoy!  
  
  
  
April 26, 1997  
  
"I can't believe you're cheating on me again! What's the slut's name this time?!"  
Sarah Johnson sighed as she let herself into the house. Her father had cheated on her mother and they were fighting. It was nothing new. It seemed like her father was sleeping with a different woman every two weeks and when mom found out it always led to an argument.  
She slipped by the dining room where her parents were fighting and went into her room, quietly shutting the door. It was times like this she could really use the comfort of talking to her on-line pen pal, Puck. Puck wasn't his real name, of course, just a nickname Owen Jones had asked her to call him by. It was a fitting nickname, considering that they were both huge "Gargoyles" fans. He called her Brook, short for Brooklyn, which was her favourite character.  
She turned on her computer and went to retrieve her Walkman. This was so she wouldn't have to listen to her parents fighting while she typed.  
"You have mail," the computer voice said.  
It was a short note from Puck. It read:  
  
Dear Brook,  
  
I have a feeling you need to talk. I'll be waiting.  
  
Puck  
  
This wasn't the first time she had gotten a message like this. The guy must be psychic. It was the first thing she asked him.  
  
PUCK Not sure. I seem to have this uncanny ability only when it comes to you. So how are you doing?  
  
BROOK Okay, I guess.  
  
PUCK They're at it again, huh?  
  
BROOK Yeah. But when are they not? Hey, enough of this dreary stuff. Let's talk about something else.  
  
PUCK "Gargoyles"?  
  
BROOK You read my mind...again.  
  
They talked for almost an hour; discussing shows and plots, trading addresses for Internet sites, and talking about their latest "Gargoyles" acquirements.  
  
PUCK Hey, Brook, "Gargoyles" will be on in a few minutes.  
  
Sarah looked down at her watch.  
BROOK Yeah, you're right. So, talk to you again after the show?  
  
PUCK Sure, unless its a Pack rerun. Then I'll talk to you sooner.  
  
BROOK Ha, ha! Well, until later.  
  
  
It was, thankfully, not a Pack rerun. It was `Eye of the Beholder,' the episode Sarah sometimes referred to as `the Halloween special.' Brooklyn looked so handsome in the pirate costume. Too bad he didn't have much time on that episode. Well, at least Elisa was wearing something other than her regular clothes. The `Belle' dress looked really nice on her.  
  
When the show had ended Sarah went back to talking on the computer with Puck a while before working on her latest Gargoyles fan fiction story, titled `Third Time's The Charm.' It was a romance between Brooklyn and a character of her own design, a human girl named Jana that eventually became a gargoyle - that part she was still working on figuring out. The story took place some time after "Angels in the Night," the last show of season three.  
  
Jana was a cartoon version of what she, Sarah, wished she looked like in real life. she knew she wasn't pretty - was in fact rather plain-looking - and that she was overweight. Sarah figured she was overweight mainly because she ate so much whenever she was upset, which was most of the time. It wasn't just because of her parents' fighting that she was unhappy, she was unhappy for other reasons too. Not the least of which was that she had few friends and got teased a lot at school because she was chubby. She dreaded the times she had to change for P.E.  
Often she would allow her mind to drift into a fantasy world where she became Jana and interacted with the gargoyles. Jana was everything she wasn't - pretty, thin, and confident for starters. As Jana she could do anything she wanted or be any way she wanted -from a street-wise kid to a young heiress. Sarah preferred the street-wise persona and used it often when she daydreamed.  
  
Sarah set the story aside when she smelled the aroma of cooking food. Rosita, the elderly Mexican housekeeper, had already arrived to prepare the evening meal. As she walked to the kitchen she stopped in the hallway and looked outside. Her dad's car was gone, which meant her mom was up in her room either crying her eyes out or drinking until she passed out. Probably both.  
  
"Hi, Rosita," she said, walking into the kitchen and taking a seat at the table.  
  
"Hello, Sarah," Rosita said with a smile, as she always did. "Your parents have been fighting again, have they?" she asked with a knowledgeable tone.  
  
"Uh-huh. What's for supper?" Sarah asked, now wanting to talk about her parents.  
  
Sarah turned off the taps and stepped out of the shower. She wrapped a large, white towel around her body and then grabbed another, smaller one, and began to briskly rub her hair. When she was done she hung the towel on a rack and went to brush the tangles from her hair in front of the mirror.  
  
That done, and her body now dry, she hung up the large towel beside the smaller one and put on her night attire - a large white night-shirt with purple sleeves and the Gargoyles logo emblazoned across the front. She pulled out the crescent moon-shaped crystal pendant she wore on a thin gold chain around her neck and dropped it, letting the pendant fall against her chest.  
  
The pendant had been a gift from Rosita for her sixteenth birthday four months before on New Year's Eve. Sarah doubly appreciated the gift because it had come from Rosita and because it was a symbol of something associated with "Gargoyles." Rosita had claimed that the pendant held magical powers capable of granting her her fondest wish. Sarah didn't believe that the pendant held true magic but she like to pretend that it did. She had added it to most of the sketches she had made of Jana and was planning on making a point of it in her current story.  
  
Sarah had finished her preparations for bed so she turned off the light and left the bathroom. She wasn't feeling sleepy yet so when she entered her room she went over to her video cassette collection and pulled out the very last tape. The sticker on the top said: GG #72 - 78. It meant that the "Gargoyles" shows from "A Bronx Tail" to "Angels in the Night" had been recorded on this tape - in order.  
  
Her video collection had become complete as of February 22 earlier this year. Actually, Sarah hoped that it wasn't complete yet, even though she knew she had all seventy-eight shows on tape -not an easy thing to do since all the titles had been recorded in order - because she was hoping that there would be a fourth season airing come October.  
  
Sarah placed the tape in the VCR, made sure the volume on the TV was turned down low, and went to get snuggled under the covers with the remote control. Once she was settled in she pushed the PLAY button and waited to hear the beginning of the opening theme song. When it was over Goliath began his narrative and the subtitle appeared.  
  
She watched the screen intently. The sound was down very low but it didn't matter; she knew the words and the music by heart. Her reason for having the sound turned down so low was so that her mother wouldn't know she was still up. Her father was still out so she wasn't worried about him and Rosita was not a live-in housekeeper. She lived with her sister and her sister's family.  
  
She set the remote on the bedside table with the knowledge that she wouldn't need it for a while (the commercials had been edited out when she had recorded the shows). She was almost completely through watching "For It may Come True' when her eyelids began to droop. They struggled to remain open, fluttering and fighting a losing battle with gravity. For some reason her left hand came up of its own volition and caressed the little crescent moon resting in the hollow of her throat. She looked over to a picture on one of the walls. It was a picture of Jana, in human form, wearing the same necklace that Sarah wore. The picture was surrounded by other pictures of Jana, all of them as she appeared in gargoyle form, in different poses and all showing her wearing the necklace.  
"I wish I could be you, Jana," Sarah whispered. She had never voiced the desire out loud before. Her eyes closed and her breathing evened; her hand remained on the pendant. Light began to emanate from the crystal, flowing outward and covering her body like a sheet. Then her body became a ghostly mist and faded away just as the title "Genesis Undone" appeared on the screen and Goliath began his narrative.  
  
  
August 19, 1997  
  
When Sarah woke it was to find that she was laying on hard ground instead of her nice, soft bed. The grass beneath her was slightly damp, she could feel the wetness directly on her skin beneath her palms and from her waist to half way up her back. As she stood she noticed two major things: her body felt alien to her, her clothes were practically indecent - baring her from her waist to just below her breasts - and she was in a cartoon. At first she thought she might have been mistaken about her observations but then she noticed a distinct movement coming from the grassy knoll a short distance away. Her eyes widened when she saw the figure and realized just where she was and, most likely, just who she was.  
"Thailog!" she said to herself in a whisper. She ducked behind a tree to avoid being seen and watched him as he took off. Her eyes followed him as he glided the short distance to a large, box-like house. A gasp escaped her lips. She sunk to the ground behind the tree and started talking to herself.  
  
"Okay, let's take stock. You're in a cartoon - "Gargoyles" - and you've just seen a villain - Thailog - heading to the house of another villain - Sevarious. Put it all together and what do you get? Probably yourself in a loony bin when you wake up." Think, Sarah - no, its Jana now, she mentally corrected herself - think. She brought her hand up to caress her pendant, a comforting gesture she had adopted some time ago.  
  
"The pendant! Of course! It must really be magic." She put that out of her mind for now. "Now, think! I must have been put here for a reason."  
  
The familiar sounds of gargoyle battle cries reached Jana's ears. It came to her then - `Genesis Undone.' She stopped thinking and took off running for the house, hoping she knew what she was getting herself into. The door, when she reached it, gave no resistance when she turned the knob and pushed.  
  
Sloppy, doc, she thought, then entered the house and let instinct guide her. She reached the upstairs room just as Sevarious was telling the clones that Thailog had made off with their only hope of survival. Well, she was already here. Why not interfere in Sevarious's little triple cross?  
  
She grabbed a piece of wood - What was it doing there in the first place? - roughly the size of a bat and ran from her hiding place in the darkness. Sevarious, hearing her footsteps, stopped mid-sentence and turned, frozen in place as he watched her approach.  
  
The board struck him in the chest. There was just enough force behind the blow to knock him to the floor and temporarily unconscious. She dropped the board and went to reach into Sevarious's pocket where the hypo spray with the concentrated gargoyle DNA was and was stopped when Hollywood grabbed her arm.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked the girl.  
  
"A friend," she replied. "Sevarious was planning to double cross all of you. He gave Thailog a hypo spray full of advanced cloning virus and plans to use the gargoyle DNA," she reached into Sevarious's pocket and withdrew the hypo spray, "to jump-start a mega big gargoyle that's down in the basement."  
  
"How do we know we know that you are telling the truth, that we can trust you?" Delilah asked.  
  
"You don't. But if you leave now you'll never catch up to Thailog, you'll be stone within the hour."  
  
Hollywood released her arm and backed away slightly. He didn't like this human girl but he and the others had no choice but to trust her.  
  
"So who's first?" she asked, holding the hypo spray up.  
  
They didn't want to trust the human but they all knew they had no choice. She was right - they would most likely succumb to the cloning virus and petrify long before they even came close to finding Thailog.  
  
Hollywood was first, then Delilah and Brentwood. Just as the human was about to inject Burbank with his share of the DNA he yelled, "Look out, lass!" She whirled and saw that the board she had hit Sevarious with come flying at her and strike her hand, shattering the glass part of the hypo spray and smearing the brownish liquid across the bare plane of her stomach. She looked down in shock to see pieces of glass sticking out of her skin and her blood mixing with the two remaining doses DNA.  
  
When she looked up she saw that Sevarious had produced a tazer gun. He pulled the trigger and two tiny, smooth darts shot out, embedding themselves in the middle of the chaos that the piece of wood had created. Volts of electricity shot through her veins, Her body jerked like she was experiencing some kind of seizure. Her knees buckled and she fell, landing hard on her side. Darkness fell and she knew no more.  
  
  
When the darkness lifted her temples were throbbing and her body ached all over. She wished the darkness would overtake her again but it wasn't to be. A damp cloth covered her eyes. She reached up to remove it and looked warily around the room. She was alone...for now.  
  
She was still inside a cartoon set, although a different one from before. It looked like a well-stocked hospital room but couldn't be that because the walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of stone. Could I be at Castle Wyvern? she wondered. She spied a surveillance camera with a blinking red light pointed right at her. Well, my hosts probably know I'm awake so I should soon find out where I am.  
  
When she tried to sit up something seemed to be tugging at her back. What could be holding her down? She looked down to where her hands were positioned and found her answer. Wings. She had wings. Gargoyle wings. She lifted the sheet. Yep, the tail and feet were there, too. She let the sheet drop and looked at her hands. She still had five fingers but instead of finger nails she now had claws of another kind - talons.  
  
She saw a mirror on the far wall and decided to check out her appearance. She knew what her face looked like but she wanted to make sure. She pulled the blanket off of her and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her legs were unsteady and her body seemed to throb constantly but she was determined in her mission. She held onto the bed for initial support and when she reached the end she placed both her hands in front of her, to brace herself if she fell, and took small, trembling steps.  
  
More concerned with watching her feet she didn't manage to see her reflection until she had her hands braced on the counter in front of the mirror and looked up.  
  
Short, spiky black hair. Green eyes. High cheekbones. Yep, it's Jana's face staring back at me. Either I'm having a really far out dream, or-  
The door opened behind her. She turned around to see who was entering and for the second time that day felt like her legs had been knocked out from under her. She fell against the counter, bruising her other hip and knocking over a tray. The contents of the tray clattered to the floor around her and the tray itself flipped over and banged her on the top of her head.  
  
"Are you alright?" a familiar voice asked. When the new pain faded Jana cautiously opened her eyes and looked up. The figure standing before her caused her eyes to widen.  
  
She had wanted this, dreamed of this, had practically wished for it to happen. But never - since she had first seen him on television two and a half years before - had she ever thought that she would actually meet her favourite gargoyle, Brooklyn, in the flesh.  
  
When he continued to stare at her Jana realized that she hadn't answered his question. "F-fine. I'm just a little unsteady on my feet," she told him. Careful, girl. Remember what he went through with Maggie. You could be treading on still-sensitive ground here.  
  
She struggled to stand but couldn't quite gather the energy that the effort required.  
  
"Here, let me help." Brooklyn reached down and grasped both her hands, pulling her to her feet with ease. He walked her back to the bed and helped her into it.  
God, this is so irritating. I hope this pain goes away soon otherwise I might just scream - and not from the pain. But it was nice to have Brooklyn touch her. He had felt very solid, which was reassuring since you didn't feel things in dreams.  
  
"Can I get you something to eat or drink? Brooklyn asked. "You've been out all day."  
  
"All day?!" She sat straight up and then flopped back down groaning when stars exploded in her head. "Ugh! Now I know how Talon and the other mutates felt when they went through this."  
  
With her eyes still closed she failed to notice Brooklyn's look of surprise. "I, uh, have to go check on something," he said. As he turned to leave she called him back.  
  
"Brooklyn, wait!" He turned, one hand on the door frame. "The clones?" she asked.  
  
"Delilah, Hollywood, and Brentwood made it. The others are gone," he replied solemnly and left.  
  
After he was gone she realized something was nagging at her mind. She carefully thought over her encounter with Brooklyn, going over it moment by moment. Then she realized what she had done - called Brooklyn by his name and mentioned the mutates' metamorphosis. "Idiot!" she whispered harshly to herself.  
  
"Alright, just who are you?' The deep, commanding voice came to her from the doorway. It could have only been Goliath. She would have known that without looking at him.  
  
She looked up at the leader of the gargoyles and said nonchalantly, "I suppose you could call me Jana." So, Jana, how exactly are you going to explain that you're from another dimension where these guys appear as a popular cartoon show?  
Goliath came to stand beside the bed and towered over Jana. "You know," she said, pointing a finger at him, "You are a lot taller in person, Goliath." Boy, are you incredibly stupid or what?  
  
"How do you know my name? For that matter, how do you know Brooklyn and Talon and the mutates?" And what were you doing at Sevarious's home last night?"  
"Y'know, if you think about it, how I know your name is the easy answer. There was that thing with the trial a while back. You'd think getting hit by a transport would do more damage, even to a gargoyle." Boy, you are getting more smart-assed by the second, aren't you? It appears you were given Jana's personality along with her body.  
  
Goliath didn't appear much affected by her words. It must all be a matter of public record, then.  
  
"That still doesn't answer my other questions," he said.  
  
Looks like you're not about to get away without explaining things. "Better take a seat, Goliath. This will take some explaining. You may not believe what I'm about to tell you, but with all the weird stuff that's happened to you and the others in the past I don't know why not." The last part was said under her breath.  
  
Goliath took the news amazingly well. It wasn't every day that you had someone drop into your universe from another dimension claiming that the last three years of your life had become a popular cartoon show.  
  
  
June 22, 1997  
  
  
"So she's really from another dimension, Goliath?" Elisa asked. She had arrived after sundown to visit with her gargoyle friends and to enquire about the curious character that had aided them at Sevarious's two nights ago.  
"Apparently. She know certain things about us that no one else could know," Goliath replied.  
  
"What if she possesses magic? She could be some kind of Avalon halfling here to jerk our chains."  
  
"Puck has already looked into that. The only magic that Jana possess is in the pendant she says brought her here."  
  
Elisa sat down on the couch beside Goliath. They were alone together in Xanatos' library.  
  
"I find it a little disconcerting that she knows personal things about us," she said, looking at Goliath.  
  
"Whatever Jana knows can't be too personal, Elisa. After all, she says we're a cartoon show." This relieved Elisa. She didn't like the idea that millions of people could be watching personal things that happened, especially things that happened between Goliath and herself. "She has told me that there are still a few shows left to go in the third season but she is not willing to reveal what we will be facing."  
  
"I suppose that makes sense. If we knew the future we might try to avoid it or change it. But, wait, wasn't she interfering in our fate when she appeared at Sevarious's home and saved three of the clones?"  
  
"Yes. Jana admitted to that. She said that the first time the clones all perished, including Thailog and a gargoyle named `Little Anton' that Sevarious had created and hidden in his basement, to be brought to life soon after we came to him for help for the clones. She realizes that she shouldn't have interfered but that she hates Sevarious - I believe she referred to him as a `panty-waist, paranoid sissy boy who'd sell his grandmother to the devil and himself to the highest bidder' - and she didn't want to let him get away with what he was doing."  
  
Elisa laughed a little at the correct description this Jana had given of Sevarious.  
  
"So this poor guy is following them around all night, carrying this bazooka he can barely lift. All sort of things happen to him; he gets dumped into a garbage truck, backs up a fork-lift and falls into the bay. Finally, covered with all kinds of crud, he catches up to Goliath and Hudson, heaves this weapon onto his shoulder, fires it, and out pops this gigantic banana cream pie. At first I thought it was some kind of river slime or something that had gotten stuffed in there somehow. So, anyway, the giant pie comes flying out and hits Goliath right smack in the face. You should have seen the look he had as the pie ran down his face. It looked something like this."  
  
As Jana had told Lexington, Brooklyn, Broadway, and Angela the tale of the pie she had sketched the way Goliath had looked the second after he had been hit with said pie. She flipped the drawing pad over now and showed the drawing to her four-gargoyle audience. There was a second of silence as they took the picture in and then they burst into laughter when they saw Goliath's stunned look accurately captured in pencil.  
  
Seconds later the object of their laughter walked into the room with Elisa at his side. Jana dropped the drawing pad picture down and flushed guiltily. The others ceased laughing.  
  
"What's so funny?" Elisa asked.  
  
Jana answered. Trying to keep a straight face she didn't look at her as she answered. "I was just telling them about the `pie incident'." She coughed, trying to stop the laughter from bubbling up. She could tell the others were straining not to laugh either.  
  
"What `pie incident'?" Elisa asked. Although she, as well as the others, had been told about the fight with Wolf and Hakon, they had never been informed of the banana cream pie hitting Goliath in the face. Only Hudson, who had been there, knew about that.  
  
Still not looking at either of the two, Jana reached for the pad and wordlessly held it out to Elisa. Elisa took it and turned it over. She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as the others had done.  
  
Hoping to distract Goliath from taking a look at the picture, Jana started talking again. "Now why was I telling that story? Oh yes. There's this guy that's had five appearances in the show and you couldn't figure out who he was. The first was your second night awake in Manhattan. He was the guy riding the motorcycle. The trio saw him." She was unwilling to say more than that just in case they had never told Goliath about the incident. "Then there was the second guard the night that Goliath and Demona attacked the airship. Then the security guard that helped Elisa the night Sevarious was kidnapped. After that he hit Goliath in the face with the pie and then later went on to save Elisa and Goliath in the old clock tower when the Quarrymen first appeared. The reason he attacked Goliath with the pie is because he believed that gargoyles were responsible for him losing his job and his driver's license."  
  
"His driver's license?" Goliath asked.  
  
Whoops! Better cover that up fast. "Y'know," she said to everyone, "I've been thinking--about how you exist here and as a cartoon in my dimension."  
  
"How do you figure?" Goliath asked, willing to be distracted--for now.  
  
"It has to do with another cartoon from my dimension. It's called 'Darkwing Duck'-"  
  
"Hey, we have that cartoon here," Lexington interrupted.  
  
Jana looked at him. "Did you see the episode where Darkwing and Megavolt got zapped into that alternate dimension?" she asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"Well, anyway, they got accidentally zapped into another dimension where they discovered that they were a popular cartoon. Darkwing learned from the human that made his cartoon that he heard about Darkwing's adventures from this thinking cap he'd bought that had been struck by lightning. Now, I'm not saying that the people from my dimension have anything like this, but maybe they have like these hidden psychic powers or something that allows the creators to see into this dimension. What do you think?"  
  
"It seems a bit far out," Brooklyn said  
  
"But possible," Goliath countered.  
  
"`All things are possible,'" Jana quoted softly.  
  
"What?" Broadway asked.  
  
"Hmm. Oh. `All things are possible,'. I'm not sure of it's real origin but I found it on the Internet on this huge list of 'Gargoyles' closings."  
  
"'Gargoyles closings'?" Angela questioned Jana.  
  
"Yeah, closings. You know, those things you write on a letter right before you sign your name. Things like 'Yours truly,' and 'Sincerely,', stuff like that. Only these closings are in relation to the show. It was a really huge list. Something like four hundred the last time I checked."  
  
"What else can you tell us of ourselves in this other dimension?" Goliath asked.  
  
"Well, you guys are really popular. There are some sites on the net devoted to fan fiction on you guys. There were all kinds of stories. There was one where this female joined the clan and she wanted to - Wait! Bad example." No kidding. That gargoyle girl wanted to get into Goliath's loincloth big time. "Well, anyway, there are a wide variety of stories. There are crossovers with `Star Trek: Deep Space Nine', `X-Files', and there was even one involving `The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest', which are all shows from my dimension. There was one where you guys busted Anthony Dracon's cousin, Antonio Draconi - real imaginative name there," she added with a little sarcasm, "and one where," she laughed without any real mirth, "this girl was brought into the show from my dimension by magic, only she first came in on `Thrill of the Hunt'." At her audience's puzzled looks she added, "The subtitle for the show of the first encounter with the Pack." She paused, trying to think of something else to say. "There was even a comic book but it stopped after only eleven issues. Apparently Marvel, the company that made the comic, is going bankrupt and that's why the comics that had been around for the shortest time were stopped first and why they're killing off the X-MEN. I don't really read about them anymore, though. The quality of their work has really gone down so I stopped reading."  
"So we had our own comic book," Broadway said, grinning at his brothers. "Cool."  
  
  
June 28, 1997  
  
"You don't mind teaching me?" Jana asked, walking along one of the outer stone battlements.  
  
"Of course not," Brooklyn replied. "You've been cooped up in this place for a week now. It's about time you learned how to use your wings." He stepped up to the parapet before him and extended a hand to Jana. She accepted, grasping his hand and stepping up beside him. She looked down. What she saw made her gasp and clench Brooklyn's hand tightly.  
  
"Hey, are you alright?" Brooklyn asked with a worried glance.  
  
"F-fine. It's just that the view didn't look this high up whenever I saw it on television." She let go of her death grip on Brooklyn's hand and forced a smile.  
  
"Let's get on with the lesson."  
  
"Yeah, okay," Brooklyn replied, sounding a little uncertain about continuing. But then his expression changed and he said, "Watch what I do and then try to repeat it."  
  
Jana followed his order; watched him as he leapt off, opened his wings, and dipped before the wind carried him upward. After several seconds he circled around and headed back to the castle, landing beside her. He looked at her expectantly.  
  
Jana turned her gaze back to the view. She breathed deeply. After a few moments had passed she laughed, a sound filled more with irony than mirth. "I've wanted to do this for years but now that I finally have the chance, I'm scared to take the first step." She turned toward Brooklyn. "What if I jump and nothing happens?"  
  
"Don't worry about it," Brooklyn said reassuringly. "It's a long way down. If nothing happens, I should be able to catch you before you hit the street." At the wide-eyed, stricken look Jana sent him Brooklyn hastened to add, "Hey, take it easy! I was only joking. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to glide right off. You're wings work, don't they?" She nodded, then moved her wings just to make sure. "So, if for some reason nothing happens, I will definitely be able to catch you."  
  
That makes me feel better, Jana thought as she turned once again and found herself looking at a fantastic drop. NOT!!  
  
If Jana had been looking at Brooklyn she would have perhaps noticed that he had a devilish glint in his eyes. His tail swung back and then came flying at her, striking her sharply in the behind.  
  
"YEOW!!" she yelled and jumped in reaction. When Jana realized she was falling she did the only thing she could think of doing - she opened her wings. Suddenly she was no longer falling, but flying, and it was amazing! She glanced back to see that Brooklyn was following her. His ploy had worked, but, boy, oh, boy, was she ever going to make him pay for it...  
  
  
After a successful flying lesson Jana and Brooklyn returned to Castle Wyvern and headed to the kitchen to get something to eat. There they encountered Angela and Broadway involved in a lesson of their own, a cooking lesson.  
  
Brooklyn went to one end of the large kitchen to strike up a quiet conversation with his rookery brother and Jana made a sandwich. She put it on a small plate and brought it over to the kitchen island where Angela was slicing vegetables, probably for some kind of soup. When Jana sat down on one of the stools she immediately stood straight up, gasping and rubbing the tender spot at the base of her tail.  
  
"What is it?" Angela asked, her fingers stilling as she looked at Jana.  
"It's the way Brooklyn `convinced' me to jump off the parapet," Jana answered.  
Angela could easily picture from Jana's movements just what Brooklyn had done. She placed the sharp knife on the counter and walked over to the fridge. From there she retrieved a pie, which she brought back with her to the island and placed it by Jana's arm. Then she picked up the knife and methodically resumed cutting.  
  
Jana looked at Angela, who kept her eyes firmly averted, then over at Brooklyn, and finally down at the pie. Understanding dawned. She picked up the pie in her right hand and aimed it at Brooklyn's head.  
  
Broadway, in a position to see what Jana was doing, said, "Uh oh," and wisely stepped away from Brooklyn.  
  
"What?" Brooklyn asked, turning his head a split second before the pie went SPLAT in his face. The pie plate fell to the floor, leaving most of the gooey concoction clinging to the Brooklyn's face. He stood there a few moments, stunned.  
  
Bull's eye, Jana thought, feeling immensely satisfied.  
  
  
  
"Yuck! This stuff is sticking to my hair!" Brooklyn complained, trying to clean off the yellow pie gunk. He stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, turning his head in different directions in an effort to spot the remaining bits of pie he could feel still clinging to his skin. "How could she hit me with a pie?"  
  
"Easy," Broadway said. "She just picked it up and threw it at you."  
  
"Ha, ha," Brooklyn replied sarcastically. "You know what I'm talking about."  
  
"Yeah. Well, it's probably no less than you deserve, whatever you did." Broadway paused. "So, what'd you do?"  
  
"I..." Brooklyn mumbled the rest under his breath.  
  
"What was that?" Broadway asked, cupping a hand behind his ear and leaning closer to Brooklyn.  
  
With a cough, Brooklyn raised his voice and repeated what he'd just said.  
  
Broadway laughed heartily. "Whoa! It's a wonder she didn't kill you!" he stated. "Well, I've got to get back to the kitchen and see how Angie's doin'." So saying, the big green gargoyle turned and left, leaving Brooklyn to stare at himself in the mirror as he contemplated the feelings that Jana seemed to arouse in him.  
  
  
July 2, 1997  
  
"Okay, we're coming in for a landing. Remember what to do?" Brooklyn asked.  
  
"Uh-huh," Jana replied, concentrating on going over the checklist in her head. So far she had accomplished taking off, managing up-drafts and down-drafts - though the down-drafts were a little tricky - and just a few minutes ago she had executed a near-perfect barrel roll, but her landings so far had been a complete flop. She just couldn't quite get the graceful landing that the other gargoyles had. Usually she ended up stumbling or falling flat on her face. She seemed to tense up before landing, so maybe that was her problem. She'd try to relax this time.  
  
Brooklyn went down first, giving Jana a recent example to follow. He landed on the large green head of the statue and quickly stepped aside to give his `student' more room to land. She dove, moving her wings in the last second and pulling up slightly in a `j' formation. Her feet touched down easily and, amazingly enough, she was still up-right.  
  
"I did it!" she said triumphantly, smiling at Brooklyn.   
  
Brooklyn smiled back. "I knew you could do it," he said proudly. "You catch on really fast."  
  
"I wish I'd caught on a little faster. Then maybe I could have avoided that sprained ankle two nights ago," Jana replied. She went to stand beside Brooklyn near the crown points. "It's an amazing view. I never thought I'd ever see it this way."  
  
"What? In person or in this dimension?" Brooklyn asked.  
  
"Both, I guess. I'm not much of a traveller." Just then Jana thought of something and turned around. Easily spotting what she was seeking she walked a few steps away and went down on one knee. "It's still here," she said, touching the blackened scorch mark, half expecting heat to still be radiating from the old lazer burn.  
  
"This?" Brooklyn asked, coming to kneel beside Jana.  
  
"Yeah. It was one of the animation mistakes made by the people that make the cartoon. When you, Goliath, Broadway and Lexington confronted Xanatos in his battle exoframe and the improved steel clan the mark was made. But after the two robots had been destroyed and the four of you were confronting Xanatos, the lazer burn had disappeared.  
  
"The mark also wasn't shown in any of the following episodes that showed the top of the Statue of Liberty's head. I wonder..." Without even thinking, Jana went over to the edge of the great head and jumped off. She glided around the left arm of the statue and landed on the large tablet held in the statue's arm.  
Just as I thought. There are faint black marks where the robot had crashed.  
She looked up to the head and saw the upper half of Brooklyn's body sticking out from between two points of the crown. He jumped from where he was and spiralled down to join her.  
  
"Do you realize what you just did?" he asked her.  
  
"Yeah. I just..." She looked back up and trailed off. She had just made a perfect landing with none of the hesitation she had shown in the one she had made moments ago. "Oh."  
  
"Yeah, `Oh.' Two good landings in one night. You really are catching on fast."  
Jana didn't reply. She just launched herself at Brooklyn, her arms wrapping around his neck. She was laughing triumphantly. Brooklyn was stunned at the action but he recovered and hugged Jana back. Curious feelings assailed him as he held Jana in his arms. He realized he liked them.  
  
  
July 20, 1997  
  
Nearly a full month had passed since Jana had come to be with the gargoyles. She had easily adapted to this new life, loved it even, but even so she occasionally found herself missing her old one. She missed talking to Puck, she missed Rosita and her cooking, and, yes, she even missed her parents. But she tried to forget her past life as she forged ahead in the one she had unexpectedly been pulled into.  
However, on a night like this - the moon in the sky was full and bright, she staring at it from the uppermost part of the castle - it wasn't easy to keep those memories locked away.  
"Jana?" The low, almost timid voice, startled Jana. She turned around, nearly falling off the parapet she had been sitting on. She grabbed the edge of the stone with one hand. She looked up to see who had approached her.  
  
"Angela?"  
  
"I'm not disturbing you, am I?"  
  
"No, of course not. Is there something you need?"  
  
Angela came over and joined Jana on the parapet next to her, sitting cross-legged as Jana did, before she spoke.  
  
"I need to know about my mother."  
  
"Demona? Are you sure you should be talking to me about this?" Jana asked, uncomfortable. "Perhaps Goliath or-"  
  
"No!" Angela said sharply, cutting her off. "No," she repeated with less vehemence. "None of the others are ever willing to talk about her."  
  
"Yeah, I know. But there is very little that I can really tell you about her."  
  
"Whatever you can tell me about my mother would be appreciated," Angela said.  
  
"Okay, I'll tell you what I can. I think the best place to begin would be with `City of Stone.'"  
  
"`City of Stone'?" Angela queried. "Another subtitle?"  
  
"Yes," Jana answered. "It all began more than a thousand years ago, the night before the massacre at Castle Wyvern..."  
  
  
August 1, 1997  
  
end of "ANGELS IN THE NIGHT"  
  
  
"I knew we'd get through it," Jana whispered in Brooklyn's ear, smiling at the crowd of humans.  
  
Brooklyn, also smiling, whispered back, "I'll just bet you did. Are there any more future surprises you know about?"  
  
"No, and if I did, you know I wouldn't be able to tell you about them."  
"Yeah, the time traveller's code, or something like that."  
  
"Look out!" a shout came from somewhere.  
  
Jon Castaway had broken free of the police holding him and grabbed one of their guns. He aimed it at the group of gargoyles, determined to kill at least one of them before he was dragged off to prison, and fired.  
  
From there things seemed to happen in slow motion. The bullet struck Jana in her left shoulder, passing through her body and coming dangerously close to her heart. When she started falling Brooklyn reached out to grab her but missed, only managing to accidentally snagging Jana's necklace on his talons.  
  
Jana fell to the ground hard, grabbing at her shoulder and crying out in pain several times in quick succession. Brooklyn went to her and clutched her to him, his hand closing on the exit wound to try to staunch the flow of blood. In the distance he could hear more gun shots but he didn't acknowledge them; he was totally focused on Jana. Her face had taken on a ghostly pallor, her lips barely moved as she began to struggle for breath. Brooklyn could tell she was growing rapidly weaker, and that could mean only one thing.  
  
"No! Come on, Jana, don't you leave me!" he cried.  
  
A hand touched Brooklyn's shoulder and he turned his head, looking wildly for the source. It was the doctor that had helped Angela and Broadway earlier on the train.  
  
"We're here to help her," he said. "But you're going to have to move out of our way so that we can."  
  
For a moment Brooklyn didn't move. He just kneeled there, unblinking, unable to comprehend what this man was saying. He was about to lose a gargoyle that was like his mate in every way but one, a gargoyle he loved more than he wanted his next breath.  
  
Goliath approached and got Brooklyn to move so that the doctor and the paramedics could start working on Jana. Brooklyn's eyes stayed trained on Jana's limp form, never once moving as he watched the very essence drain out of Jana along with the blood pumping from her wound.  
  
Jana forced her eye lids open and looked to where Brooklyn was standing. A sleepy feeling stole over her. It wasn't the way she had imagined approaching death would feel, Jana thought. In fact, it was very similar to...  
  
  
April 27, 1997  
  
The alarm went off. A hand reached from under the covers, groped around, and hit the snooze button. She lay there quiet for a moment then, like a switch being thrown, she remembered. She sat straight up in bed, pulling the covers off her face. She looked around the room in despair. The shelves full of toys, the computer, and the television with its blank screen all marked her return to her old life as Sarah Johnson.  
  
Sarah jumped out of her bed and ran to the kitchen. Not for food this time, but because she knew Rosita would be there. She desperately needed to talk to Rosita.  
  
Rosita was there, standing, as usual, at the stove, cooking up some concoction for breakfast.  
  
"Rosita?" the name came out in a broken voice. Tears sprang from her eyes as the woman, who was very much like a grandmother to her, turned. Upon seeing Sarah's face, she immediately went to her and enfolded her in a tender embrace.  
  
"It happened, did it?" Rosita asked in her loving voice.   
  
Whether she was referring to the fulfilment of Sarah's wish or that Sarah had fallen in love, the young girl wasn't sure. But she answered anyway. "I made my wish. But why have I come back? Why am I not still with him?" Tears flowed like a river down her face, leaving a wet trail beneath each eye. "I fell in love," she said in a voice barely above a whisper. "Rosita, I have to know. Was any of it real? Anything at all?"  
  
"Only you can answer that, child," Rosita replied softly. "You must trust what is in your heart and let it guide you."  
  
"Will I ever return to him?" Sarah couldn't help but ask.  
  
"I don't know. I wish I did." Rosita could almost feel Sarah's pain, her heart ache. It went right to the depths of her soul. "Poor child. Perhaps it would have been better if I had never given you the gift."  
  
"No, Rosita," Sarah hurried to reply. "The pendant was the best gift I've ever gotten and I would never trade it for anything." Reflexively, she reached up to feel for it's comforting presence. It wasn't there. "Rosita, the pendant!" Sarah exclaimed. She pulled away and looked down. She couldn't see it. She felt at her neck for the chain but all she physically sensed was a slight tingling at the back of her neck. "Rosita, Brooklyn's talons got caught up in my necklace when I fell after I was shot. The chain broke and I saw him holding it right before I passed out and returned here. He must still have it with him!" She turned her back to Rosita and lifted her plain brown hair, showing her the thin red line that extended around the nape of her neck. "This proves that I was there, doesn't it?" She dropped her hair and turned around to face Rosita, a hopeful look on her face.  
  
Rosita found that she could not disappoint this young teenager that she loved so much. She smiled, saying, "It must, for I have never known you to take the necklace off." To herself, she made a mental note to do a search of Sarah's room later, just to make sure the pendant hadn't accidentally broken off. But somehow Rosita knew that she would never see this particular necklace again.  
  
After breakfasting in her pyjamas Sarah went to change into something nice, feeling a strong desire to go to church that morning. It was the first time in such a long time that she had gone that she felt a little nervous, especially being alone. But the moment she walked through the double doors she couldn't help but feel the love and acceptance in the atmosphere.  
  
  
The cursor on the computer screen kept blinking, waiting for its master to give it a command. Sarah's hand hovered over the keyboard, uncertainty clearly showing on her face. She finally covered her eyes with her other hand and pressed the DELETE key with her waiting finger. She looked up at the screen and released a shuddering sigh.  
  
Well, for good or ill, she had done it. Erasing the file the first time had been easy, knowing that she had a back-up disk, but erasing the back-up file for her story, `Third Time's the Charm', had not been easy.  
  
She wasn't sure where the decision had come from to destroy the story and start over on something new had come from, but it had felt like the right thing to do.  
Sarah already knew what she wanted to work on next. It was a story telling about her adventures with the gargoyles. She already had the perfect title picked out: `Be Careful What You Wish For'...  
  
  
January 1, 1998  
  
A loud knocking came at the front door, rousing Sarah from a peaceful sleep. She looked drowsily over at the alarm clock. It read 4:37 a.m. Rosita had gone home hours ago, after a small celebration she'd given Sarah in honor of her seventeenth birthday.  
  
The knocking came again, more insistent this time. Great. That meant that whoever was there probably wouldn't go away. Reluctantly she got out of bed, grabbed her robe out of the closet, and shrugged it on while she headed for the front door, planning to tell whoever was at the front door to go to hell and come back tomorrow when she wasn't walking around with her eyes practically closed.  
  
Sarah reached the door just as the knocking started again. She wrenched open the door and saw a hand frozen in mid-air. A male police officer was attached to the hand and a female partner stood beside him. When one of them moved aside the bright light from the head-light of their vehicle shone right in her eyes. She brought her hand up to shield her eyes, feeling for an instant like she was under an interrogation in some movie, and squinted at the officers.  
  
"Are you Miss Sarah Johnson?" one of them asked.  
  
Sarah nodded. She closed her eyes and laid her head against the door frame.  
"Daughter of Laura and Jack Johnson?"  
  
Sarah nodded again. "Yeah. What's this about? Have they been arrested again? 'Cause if so-"  
  
"I'm afraid it's not like that, ma'am."  
  
Sarah's eyes flew open. The bright light still hurt her eyes but she tried her best to ignore them. "Have they been in an accident?" she asked.  
  
"Please, miss, let's go inside."  
  
  
Her parents were dead. The police had explained that they had been in a head-on collision with a transport hauling gasoline. Both their car and the truck had exploded, killing them and the two drivers of the other vehicle instantly. In a crazy twist, the driver of the transport had been drunk - not her parents - and had swerved into the opposite lane.  
  
Sarah felt numb. She barely remembered giving them Rosita's name and number when asked if there was someone she wanted to some stay with her. Later she would say that she shouldn't have gotten Rosita out of bed so early when she would have been at the house a couple of hours later anyway. Rosita told her that she would have wanted to be called no matter what the time.  
  
  
February 13, 1998  
  
Friday the thirteenth. A day long associated with bad luck. Not so for Sarah Johnson, as long as you considered profiting from your parent's death good luck. Today had been the reading of her parents' wills. With the exception of the ten thousand left to Rosita for her years of loyal service Sarah was the sole beneficiary of her parents' estate, an estate that amounted to more than twenty million dollars, all things considered.  
  
The money was to be placed in trust until she reached her twenty-first birthday. She would be paid a monthly allowance and Rosita was her appointed guardian until she came of age.  
  
  
June 24, 1998  
  
"Sarah, an envelope has come for you in the mail," Rosita called the moment Sarah walked in the door. She joined Rosita in the kitchen and kissed her on the cheek. She noticed the thick manila envelope on the table but went to get a soft drink from the fridge before she sat at the table.  
  
"How was school today?" Rosita asked conversationally.  
  
"Fine," Sarah answered absently, having noted the return address on the envelope. Buena Vista? What... She tore open the envelope, withdrew the small stack of papers, and picked up the letter on the top. As she read it, phrases seemed to leap out at her.  
  
"Sorry for the delay in replying...loved your story, 'Be Careful What You Wish For'...would like to purchase it...'Gargoyles' movie...contracts enclosed in triplicate."  
  
Sarah couldn't believe what she was reading so she read through it a second time just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Yep, it was all down there in black and white. `They' wanted to purchase her `Gargoyles' story. But how had it come to be in their possession in the first place? This story had been a very private thing for her so she had let only one person read it.  
  
"Of course," she said aloud.  
  
"What?" Rosita asked.  
  
"Rosita, I just got a letter and some contracts from Buena Vista. They want to buy my story. You know the one I told you about? My experiences in the other universe?"  
  
Rosita nodded.  
  
"Well, I never sent them that story. Puck was the only one that read my story. You never read it because I told you everything that happened in the other reality. He must have been the one to send it to them. But why?" This last was said to herself, trying to find a reason as to why her friend had done this. Without another word she jumped up and left the room, going to the study where her computer had been moved to - because there was more room there - some months before. Once she was in e-mail she sent him a message and began the wait.  
  
It was several hours before a reply showed up in her computer. First, she got angry with him. How dare he do something like this without her permission?! She had trusted him with something very special - although she had never told Puck just how special this story really was to her - and sent it to some strangers.  
  
Puck's profuse apologies took the wind out of her sails, or rather, the anger out of her words. He explained why he had sent the story to the people at Buena Vista without her permission. Then he had gone on to tell her that after the mail had gone out that day that he had mailed her story, he had suffered a severe attack of guilt. Too late to do anything about it, he had made the decision not to tell her what he had done. When months had gone by without her e-mailing him about how torked she was at him, he figured her story had ended up in a trash bin, perhaps without ever having been read. Then he had the gall to ask her if they had decided to buy her story.  
  
Sarah told him they had. Even though she was, in a way, pleased that her story had been bought, she was still mad at him and it may be a while before she forgave him. Then she exited her computer.  
  
Twenty minutes later she called him back and forgave him.  
  
  
October 10, 2001  
  
"Owen, I can't believe you made it!" Sarah cried, hugging her on-line pen pal for the first time ever. "Here," she said, breaking the embrace, "let me help you with those bags."  
  
Owen handed her the lightest one and followed her in the house, carrying the other two. "Of course I made it. I know how important this is to you. And beside, it just wouldn't feel right seeing the movie without you."  
  
"You mean, since it probably never would have become a movie if it wasn't for you?" Sarah asked, looking back over her shoulder.  
  
"You're never going to let me live that down, will you?" Owen asked, not the least bit put out at the reminder of what he had done three years before.  
  
"So you didn't have any problems getting time off from work?" Sarah asked, changing the subject. She started up the stairs, leading Owen to the guest bedroom.  
  
Owen smiled at the obvious diversion. "Surprisingly not a one," he replied. "I expected my boss to put up more of a fuss at my asking for time off. Hell, I expected him to chew my a-, uh, head off, just for daring to ask.  
  
"Really?" Sarah asked idly. "Well, perhaps you have a guardian angel keeping an eye on you or something."  
  
"Or something," Owen whispered under his breath as Sarah opened a door and stepped inside. For some reason he just knew that Sarah had something to do with him getting out of his boss's office without any battle scars. What tactics did she use on the old tight-fisted money grubber? he wondered.  
  
"Did you have something to do with it?" he asked her as he entered the room.  
  
"With what?" Sarah asked as she put the suitcase on the bed.  
  
"With me escaping from the boss's office alive," he replied.  
  
"Who? Me?" Sarah asked innocently, batting her eye-lashes at her friend.  
  
Yep, she definitely had something to do with it. Suspecting he wasn't going to get any more out of her, Owen let the matter drop.  
  
"You should have called me to let me know you were coming early. I could have picked you up at the airport," Sarah said as Owen put his other two suitcases on the floor.  
  
"I wanted to surprise you," was Owen's excuse.  
  
"And a good surprise it was. I'm so happy to see you."  
  
At a loss as for what to do next she impulsively hugged him again.  
  
A discreet cough from the doorway had them pulling apart. It was Consuela, Rosita's youngest niece. She was a few years older than Sarah and had been hired seven months ago to help Rosita with the housework.  
  
"Better not let Aunt Rose catch you hugging a strange man, Sarah. You know how she loves to guard your virtue." She smiled even as Sarah blushed.  
  
"Connie," Sarah said, "this is my friend, Owen Jones. He caught an earlier flight to surprise me."  
  
"Nice to meet you," Connie said, coming forward to shake Owen's hand. "Well, I have to go earn my keep. I'll see you two later."  
  
"It was nice meeting you," Owen called to the departing figure. He turned to Sarah.  
  
"I suppose I should leave too," she said. "Give you some time to settle in. I'll see you later."  
  
She walked from the room, unaware Owen's eyes were on her the whole time, and with good reason. Over the last couple of years Sarah had worked hard to shed her extra body fat and was finally within the weight range for her height. She was firm where she was supposed to be firm and soft in all the right places, as Owen had twice felt for a brief moment.  
  
As Sarah left the room her mind was already on Owen. The picture he had sent her after they had become pen pals was very out-dated. He no longer had the severe case of acne and, unless he no longer needed glasses, had begun wearing contacts. His eyes were gorgeous, their green reminded her of the emerald glow of Castle Wyvern at night. His short hair, again different from the picture, was a light, sandy brown. Probably made that way by all the time he had told her he was spending in the sun. He was, as Connie might put it, buff and sexy to the max.  
  
  
October 13, 2001  
  
"Sarah will be down in a few minutes, Mr. Jones. Would you care for something to drink?"  
  
"Thank you, Rosita, but no. I rarely drink and never before I intend to drive." Rosita nodded her head in approval, the test she had set before this man had passed. "And, please, call me Owen. Mr. Jones sounds so formal and I feel as if I know you what with the way Sarah has talked about you over the years."  
  
Rosita looked thoughtful for a moment then came to a decision. "Alright, Owen," she said, testing the name. "But only because you are Sarah's friend."  
  
Soft footfalls drew their attention to the staircase as a vision in white satin began to descend. Sarah was so breathtakingly beautiful. It was a lame description for this gorgeous creature but it was the first thing that sprang to Owen's mind. She wore a single strand of pearls and her hair had been piled on top of her head in an elegant swirl. She was a master piece, an art form that would be impossible to capture in any medium.  
  
When Sarah reached the bottom of the stairs Owen remembered to breathe again. "You look magnificent," he said in awe.  
  
"Thank you," she replied blushingly.  
  
They stood there looking at each other for a few moments until Rosita coughed.  
"I guess we should be going," Sarah said almost reluctantly. "We don't want to miss the premier of `Be Careful What You Wish For'."  
  
  
February 14, 2006  
  
"Do you, Sarah Johnson, take Owen Jones to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, for so long as you both shall live?"  
  
"I do," came the tremulous reply.  
  
The minister repeated the question for Owen and got the same answer.  
  
It was a beautiful day for a wedding. The weather was perfect; the sun was shining, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and there was only a slight breeze blowing through the trees. The wedding was held outside on the grounds of the country club. Rosita, since there had been no male relatives, had given Sarah away and Consuela had served as Sarah's matron of honor. Owen's only brother, a young man that resembled him very closely, was his best man, and his niece and nephew, both children of his sister, were the flower girl and ring bearer. Many people had gathered together this day to witness and celebrate Sarah and Owen's wedding.  
  
It had taken them ten years to reach this moment. Their only regret, a shared one, was that it had taken them so long to reach this point. Sarah secretly knew it had been reluctance on her part, pining for what she had lost - Brooklyn. It had been the one thing she found that she couldn't share with the one person she thought she could tell anything to (unless if it was of a physical, feminine nature - in which case she usually went to Rosita). So she had kept her experience a secret - telling only Rosita - and finally made the decision to move on with her life. She had wanted children, and there was no guarantee she would ever see Brooklyn again. Although she loved Owen dearly, she loved him as a friend, not in the all-consuming way she had loved Brooklyn. She hoped it would be enough for a long and happy marriage.  
  
"You may now kiss the bride."  
  
Owen lifted the delicate veil and lowered his head to kiss his new bride.  
  
  
August 29, 2049  
  
It was a doctor's office, decorated in the usual way with pictures of the doctor's family and his diplomas hanging on the walls.  
She had been there many times before. She had been going to this doctor ever since the one she had usually gone to, Dr. Samuel Morris, had retired several years ago. The one she now went to was Maxwell Stevens. He had taken over Morris's old office.  
  
"You've been my doctor for years now, Max, and my friend. I want the truth from you, and I don't want you to sugar-coat it."  
  
Max, a doctor in his mid- forties, removed his glasses with one hand and rubbed to bridge of his nose with the fingers of the other. "I'll be truthful, Sarah, as always. You know that." He put his glasses back on, took a deep breath and released it, trying unsuccessfully to rid himself of the knot of tension that had formed in his stomach. "It's cancer, just as we thought."  
  
"I see. How bad is it."  
  
"Very bad. It's spread to most of the major organs of the body. I'm not sure how you've gone so long without noticing any of the symptoms."  
  
"Well," Sarah said, figuring she might as well tell Max the truth seeing as she had nothing left to lose, "I've been feeling poorly for a long while now but I figured it had to do with me getting old."  
  
Max looked at her in disbelief. He couldn't believe Sarah had gone on so long doing nothing about the symptoms she must have surely been suffering from for a very long time. He sighed, saying nothing. After all, it was far too late to do anything about the cancer so what did he have to gain by yelling at Sarah for her stupidity?  
  
"How long do I have, Max?" Sarah asked him, showing a calm exterior it was all too easy to see was a fake.  
  
"Not long, I'd think. You may last a year or maybe just a few weeks or days. It's too unpredictable to say for sure, but I'd guess you'd have no more than half a year left to live."  
  
  
December 31, 2049  
  
"It won't be much longer now, Brooke. She has asked to see Carrie." Max stood outside Sarah's hospital room with her only child, a daughter, Brooke. Carrie was Brooke's daughter, Sarah's grandchild, and she was in the waiting room waiting for news of her grandmother.  
  
"Alright," Brooke replied. "But I want to see her before I go get Carrie."  
  
Max nodded and Sarah entered her mother's room. She went over to the bed where her mother lay, so pale and nearly lifeless. She reached for her mother's right hand and squeezed it gently. Sarah's eyes fluttered open and focused on her daughter.  
  
"Hi, mom."  
  
Sarah smiled weakly. "You're such a good girl. I always wanted to have more children but you were enough. If only Owen, my dear, dear husband, hadn't died... Is Carrie coming?"  
  
"Soon, mom. I'm going to get her as soon as I leave." But Brooke was reluctant to move. What if her mother passed away while she was getting Carrie?  
  
As if hearing the unspoken question in her daughter's head, Sarah spoke. "I will not die until I've seen my granddaughter."  
  
Brooke nodded then leaned forward and tenderly kissed her mother's brow. "I'll hurry," she said.  
  
As soon as Brooke left the room Sarah looked down at her left hand. It was closed into a loose fist. She turned her hand over and opened the fist. Resting on her palm was a gold chain attached to a crescent moon crystal pendant. It had appeared a short time ago, seconds before Max had come in to check on her.  
Sarah smiled secretly. She knew her life wasn't ending, that her adventure wasn't yet over. It was just beginning. But before she left this life there was something she had to do first.  
  
A few minutes later the door opened and Carrie walked in. Brooke stood in the doorway, looking indecisive for a moment. She grabbed the door knob and pulled the door shut, leaving grandmother and granddaughter alone together.  
  
Carrie was uncomfortable. She knew that death was in the air and any minute now it would take her grandmother to her. She forced her uneasy feelings down and approached her grandmother's bedside. She sat down in the chair and took her grandmother's right hand in both of hers as her mother had done.  
  
"Carrie, I have something to give you." She brought her left hand, closed once again over the necklace, over her body. Carrie put one of her hands out and saw the necklace drop into it.  
  
"Grandma?" Carrie questioned, confused.  
  
"It is a gift to you. It contains magic. You have only to believe..." Her voice faded for a moment. It was nearly time for her to go. She had to finish what she was saying before her time was up. "Remember the story I once told you about the girl who was granted her fondest wish?"  
  
"About Jana?" Carrie asked.  
  
Sarah nodded.  
  
"Yes. I heard you tell it to me as a bed time story when I was younger. I remember that I always fell asleep before the ending."  
  
"That's because there is no ending, Carrie. I must go back and finish it."  
  
"Grandma, what are you talking about?" Carrie asked, fearing her grandmother was losing her sanity in her last moments of life.  
  
"I know this will be hard for you to believe, that you may think I've gone crazy, but that story was true. I was that girl. And this," she said, indicating the pendant, "is the necklace that showed me the way."  
  
Carrie sat there. Here she was being given a necklace she had never seen by her dying grandmother, a grandmother that insisted that magic existed, specifically in this pendant. Dare she believe her? Carrie wished she could. That meant that her grandmother wouldn't really die this day, but go live another life with someone else she loved.  
  
Sarah's grip on Carrie's other hand strengthened for a brief moment and then relaxed. Her chest fell, exhaling her last breath in this life. Her soul rose from her body and Carrie, who could see what was happening, gaped in surprise. As her grandmother's ghost faded from her sight, Carrie believed with all her heart that her grandmother was going home.  
  
  
(August 1, 1997, "Angels In the Night")  
  
Brooklyn's hand was clenched tightly around Jana's necklace so he immediately noticed when it disappeared. He opened his empty hand, seeing only a spot of blood where the sharp point of the crescent shape had pierced his skin.  
  
"Clear!"  
  
Brooklyn looked up in time to see Jana's body jerk up from the electricity that shot into her body. Her heart had stopped and she had ceased breathing nearly five minutes ago. If they didn't revive her soon, she would die. Even if she lived, after going this long without oxygen she could be brain damaged.  
  
The doctor leaned over and breathed air into Jana's deflated lungs. Her chest rose with the air being forced into her.  
  
"Clear!"  
  
Again the paddles were put on Jana's chest, sending a surge of electricity that made her back arch. The doctor leaned over and was about to start breathing air into Jana's lungs again when Jana's lungs rose without anyone's help. She coughed and opened her eyes, gazing dazedly around her. An oxygen mask was placed over her nose and mouth.  
  
A cheer went up from the crowd but no voice was louder than Brooklyn's, the joy he felt at Jana's 'resurrection' lending strength to his call. He walked slowly over to Jana and waited. The humans took the hint and moved aside as soon as fresh bandages replaced the bloody ones.  
  
Brooklyn knelt down at Jana's side, touching one hand where it lay and bringing the other up to brush the hair off Jana's forehead. He wasn't sure how, but he knew everything was going to be alright. Jana would heal when the sun came up and tomorrow they would go home to the castle. When the time was right, she would become his mate and bear his children. Perhaps she would even become his second-in-command when the mantle of leadership was passed down to him.  
  
Jana was envisioning the same things as Brooklyn, all except being his second. She did not care for the burden of leadership, just Brooklyn's love. She knew she already had that and she was content.  
  
There were the memories of her former life but some of them were already beginning to fade. The future knowledge of the show would go first, so Jana would not have to deal with keeping important knowledge about the future from the gargoyles, or be tempted to change things even though she knew she shouldn't.  
  
The memories of her family, for the most part, would remain intact. She would remember the good times and the sad ones, but she would try not to dwell on anything too much. She would try not to grieve so much in the loss of her family but instead glory in the one she had regained today. One that would grow and change in the future as the children of her union with Brooklyn began to arrive.  
  
The sun rose over the horizon freezing them together in stone. Brooklyn's stance was protective and caring - as he had always been, as he would always be.  



End file.
